In Act 1 of the story told in the musical Kismet the beautiful Marsinah is viewing the garden of a house her father wishes to buy. The young Caliph, who is dressed in disguise, has already been struck by her beauty from afar and enters the garden pretending to be a gardener so that he might speak to her. She begins to sing about how the garden has been strangely transformed before her eyes. He takes over the song and sings about how he too strangely feels he has entered paradise when he stands beside an angel such as she. In the song he asks for an indication that she feels the same way about him. Though she feels a strong draw to him she breaks from the song and asks him a mundane question about what flowers to plant. He asks her to meet him again in the garden at moonrise, and she instantly agrees. He asks her to promise to him she'll keep her rendezvous and she now takes up the song singing that it was his face that had made her feel in paradise. They now sing together that they are in bliss in each other's company and how much they need to know the other cares.[1]

The huge popularity of "Stranger in Paradise" in the UK is reflected by the fact that no less than six versions charted in 1955: Besides the chart topper by Tony Bennett, there was also the Four Aces (No. 6), Tony Martin (No. 6), Bing Crosby (No. 17), Don Cornell (No. 19), as well as an instrumental version by Eddie Calvert (No. 14) in the UK chart listings.